Sharpening Pictures
This week's lesson was how to sharpen using Photoshop filters.
Unsharp Mask (USM) - Picture 1
The first application uses the unsharp filter mask (Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask). I selected a picture of roses, shown below before sharpening.
I followed Ron's approach for using the Unsharp Mask filter (USM), and set the Amount 500, radius 0.2, and threshold 0. I did not see any change on the picture. I suspect it was because of the limited focal range of my camera lens. So I increased the radius until I saw an overexaggerated change at radius 1.1. Then I reduced the Amount until I had a decent sharpened picture with the amount at 162%.
The resulting filtered picture is shown next.
It is hard to see the difference, so I will show two of the 100% zoom sections I looked at in making the USM selection. This is a rollover image, with the before image showing first. Rollover the rose with your mouse to see the USM treated picture. [Sorry for the shift in the USM version. I am still learning how to do this shift stuff.]
{Note to Internet Explorer users: If the rollover does not seem to work, unblock the ActiveX/script control for the page. Unblock the script to allow the rollover to work. Then the rollover should be fine.}
The next selection is a part of the picture showing the white flowers. The initial picture is the before shot at 100%, and the rollover image is the 100% after the USM was applied. [And - right, another phase shift.]
Unsharp Mask (USM) - Picture 2
I used a garden setting for the second application of the USM. I used Ron's approach for the initial settings and modified them to fit the picture.
The resulting picture showed a difference at the full size, with the USM applied. Rollover the photo below to see the before and after USM application.
The effect of the USM application is more noticable in a close up of this same picture (again, use the rollover technique to see the USM).
Smart Sharpening Filter
I tried the smart sharpening filter on the picture of the roses, and pretty much got the same thing as I did using the USM filter. So I elected not to keep the result. I will keep the smart sharpening filter in my hip pocket, and will probably find more deserving photos in the future.
Selective Sharpening
I thought the garden photo would be good for applying the selective sharpening. I duplicated the background layer, and applied USM to bring out the detail in the pot. Then I added a mask and filled it with black to remove the USM. I painted on the mask to bring back the USM to the pot and the foreground grass. But I did not like the result. The background was too strongly in focus. So I did some maneuvering within the layers to add a Gaussian blur to all but the area that I wanted sharpened. This gave me the image I wanted, a sharpened pot and blurred background in the photo. Hover over the picture to see the finished result.
That's it for this week, and that's the end of the course. Thanks to Ron Lacey for the excellent material. I learned a lot and enjoyed the course.
